Estimate for Accountant and Attorney Fees

March 11, 2025

by a searcher from Indiana University at Bloomington in Chicago, IL, USA

For purposes of financial modeling, I would appreciate thoughts on reasonable estimates for the cost of an accountant and attorney for an acquisition. Assume the purchase price will be between $800k - $2m. FWIW, I am a transactional attorney and would aim to limit my lawyer's involvement.

Is $100k in the aggregate fair enough? Or is there a % of purchase price that is typical?

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Reply by a professional
from Bentley College in Miami, FL, USA

At DueDilio, we've seen over 500 transactions over the last 3 years. Frankly, $800k to $2M EV is a big range so it's difficult to give you a close estimate. Broadly speaking, you're looking at $6k to $12k for a QofE and another $9k to $15k in legal fees.

Reply by a professional
from University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, MN, USA

I've been working on a M&A legal services model for smaller deals (<$1.5MM) that involves more of a streamlined process and limited scope for a significantly reduced fee. I personally think a lot of Buyers doing these Main Street deals are not really being served well by a quasi-LMM process on these smaller deals (although each deal and each buyer is unique, of course). Where a limited scope is called for and opposing counsel is reasonably cooperative and practical, we're seeing some of these deals get done with individualized legal docs for $5-8k on the low end, $10-15k in the middle, and maybe $20-25k on the high end. Reasonable minds may differ on this, of course, but for most searchers buying a (for example) $900k home services business doing $375k in "earnings" with a ~100k seller note, the ROI on paying mid-5 figures for a 40-page APA with dozens of disclosure schedules and robust legal diligence is at least questionable. Nobody will ever litigate that deal anyway. Our goal - for those buyers interested - is to run a sort of 80/20 analysis and create a streamlined process that provides a practical, reasonable level of legal protection on smaller deals, while preserving goodwill with the Seller and getting the Buyer behind the wheel of the business faster. Ok, I'm done ranting into the void on legal economics on a 3-month old post that nobody will read - thanks for stopping by!

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